EX­PLO­SIVES USED IN CO-OP RAID

PO­LICE CON­FIRM EX­PLO­SIVES WERE USED IN THEFT

BING­HAM res­i­dents de­scribed the “mess” that was left af­ter an ex­plo­sive was used to steal money from a Co-op cash ma­chine in Mar­ket Place.

Up to five peo­ple wear­ing dark cloth­ing and bal­a­clavas were seen get­ting out of a ve­hi­cle be­fore leav­ing the scene with cash from the ma­chine. The in­ci­dent was re­ported to Not­ting­hamshire Po­lice at 1.40am yes­ter­day, af­ter re­ports of the win­dows at the Co-op store be­ing smashed.

Andy Hawkins, 50, who owns the Raw Fruit and Veg store op­po­site the Co-op, said that the rob­bers had left the place “in quite a mess”.

He said: “I’m quite shocked that they used an ex­plo­sive on it. There were foren­sics out­side this morn­ing and it looks like they broke in, as the doors are smashed.

“It’s just an in­con­ve­nience for peo­ple work­ing there and shop­ping there. We lost two banks al­ready in Bing­ham, so that cash point was used a lot. It doesn’t look pretty.”

Mar­tyn Har­wood, 58, man­ager of Handi­cen­tre, in Mar­ket Place, said: “The shop has been closed all morn­ing and it looks like they’ve gone into the shop when they robbed it.

“I guess it saved them us­ing a dig­ger or some­thing as rob­bers usu­ally do.”

A spokes­woman for the Co-op said: “There was an in­ci­dent at our Mar­ket Place, Bing­ham store in the early hours of Fri­day morn­ing.

“We ap­peal for any­one with in­for- ma­tion to come for­ward to Po­lice, who are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.

“It is too early to con­firm when the store will re-open to serve the com­mu­nity.”

A Not­ting­hamshire Po­lice spokesper­son said: “We were called to re­ports that the win­dows to the Co-op in Mar­ket Place had been smashed at around 1.40am.

“It’s be­lieved that the of­fend­ers used an ex­plo­sive to ac­cess the de­vice and de­tec­tives are work­ing with re­gional col­leagues to es­tab­lish whether it’s linked to any other in­ci­dent. If any­one saw any­thing or has any in­for­ma­tion that could help, please con­tact us on 101 quot­ing in­ci­dent 54 of 7 De­cem­ber.